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Interview With Justice Carolyn Demarest (Ret.) on Litigating and Mediating Business Divorce Cases

July 17, 2017

During her many years as Presiding Justice of the Brooklyn Commercial Division, New York Supreme Court Justice Carolyn E. Demarest (Ret.) decided numerous important and challenging business divorce cases. I should know, having featured on this blog in the last 10 years no less than 19 of her decisions.

Among them, and likely the one with the most lasting impact, is the Mizrahi case in which Justice Demarest issued two major post-trial decisions granting dissolution of an LLC based on financial infeasibility and ordering a closed auction between the two 50/50 members, before the Appellate Division on appeal by the petitioner made new law by ordering an “equitable buy-out” of the respondent member.

Another of my favorites is the Cortes case, also a post-trial decision, in which Justice Demarest granted common-law dissolution of a restaurant business conditioned on a buy-out of the minority shareholder reflecting his share of millions in cash “skimmed” by the controlling shareholders from a restaurant business as established by sophisticated forensic analysis.

I was among many lawyers saddened by Justice Demarest’s decision last year to hang up her robes. She truly was one of the best trial court judges around, not to mention losing one of my most prolific sources of blog fodder.

The good news is, soon after leaving the bench Justice Demarest joined the Manhattan office of JAMS where she serves as an arbitrator and mediator in complex commercial cases. With 34 years on the bench, a deep understanding of the substantive law governing relations among co-owners of closely held business entities, and equally extensive experience with business valuation, it’s hard to imagine a more qualified neutral in business divorce matters.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Justice Demarest for my Business Divorce Roundtable podcast. You can hear the interview by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post.

The interview features Justice Demarest’s thoughts on the many challenges presented by business divorce cases. Naturally I had to ask her about the Mizrahi case and a few others she decided. We also talk about the mediation of business divorce cases.

So give it a listen and if you like it, I’d be grateful if you post a good review on iTunes which will help spread the word.